Level 18 Camwhore

“Playground Pin-Up”

scully Posted:

3. Can you reach the end?WatcherX will post the answer to this damn thing. Log in to see images!

As the author of question #3, ( the question a.k.a. “The Craaaaaazy Interwebz Research Game of Doom, Dismemberment, and Dainty Doilies, part III: The Revenge!”, ) Scully asked that I post a write-up of how that portion could be solved.

The whole thing could be solved with a little dedication, and decent internet research skills. When Scully did it herself, after I made it, it took her a couple hours, most of the time being spent on clue C. All the “walkthrough” answers have been spoilered, in case people want to still try getting to the end themselves, but got stuck on one part.

A) So, heading to Google, “Boobies!” brings up very special Policeman #9. Watching the clip, the dashcam (which appears several times during the video) the date is 04/16/2008, which when converted to mmddyy is 041608. The camera (not the dashcam) that the officer uses to take a pic appears to be a Polaroid One Step camera, so the manufacturer is Polaroid. Thus, the pbumphrase is polaroid041608.

B) “Sexy Dance Time!” leads to iJustine. Her name is blatantly on the YouTube account. Searching “iJustine spokesperson” on Google, Yahoo, and even Bing all lead to her work with Mozy. Once again, searching “Mozy competitor” ( on Google, Yahoo, Bing, Wikipedia… ) leads to Carbonite. If you have even the smallest amount of geek in you, you know what Carbonite is, but let’s say you were cruelly stunted at birth by having no nerd in you; let’s find out what Carbonite is… Heading to the font of modern internet knowledge that is Wikipedia, Carbonite has a few physical representations. The first is dynamite (not great for preservation); the second is the polyatomic ion, which they’re not even sure it exists, let alone has uses; then we see Star Wars… “A side-effect of being frozen in carbonite in Star Wars is temporary blindness”... So, blindness must be the pbumphrase. Let’s check it against the hint. Look up Blindness on IMDB, or simply head right to http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0011166/ for verification.

C) So, searching on Google for “Green Day” and “T-shirt saying” gives absolutely squat. It must be time to ween from the easy search answers for a time, so let’s research the individual members: Billie Joe Armstrong, Tre Cool, and Mike Dirnt. Billie’s been in Pinhead Gunpowder, The Network, and Foxboro Hot Tubs. Tre’s been in The Lookouts, The Network, and Foxboro Hot Tubs. Mike has The Network, Foxboro Hot Tubs, The Frustrators, Screeching Weasel, and Squirtgun. We can discount John Kiffmeyer, as the clue says member, not former member. So, let’s look at the bands: The Network shows no real link to a reason for the name, other than ranting 80’s inspired insanity; FHT is based on actual hot tubs; as for Pinhead, according to their Myspace, “I wanted to call it “Pinhead Gunpowder”, after the high octane green tea at the Arcata co-op;” thelookouts.org gives no real reason for their name; The Frustrators official site doesn’t even exist anymore… Then we have Screeching Weasel… “Screeching Weasel, a variation of a name a friend had suggested, Screaming Otter, which was a reference to a t-shirt that read, ‘I’VE GOT A SCREAMING OTTER IN MY PANTS!’” Okay, we have our band. Next, the album: “Screeching Weasel enlisted the help of Green Day bbumist Mike Dirnt to record what they intended to be their final album. After 1994’s How To Make Enemies And Irritate People was released, the band broke up for the second time.” Heading to the album’s listing, trivia includes “The album’s title is a parody of the best-selling Dale Carnegie book, How to Win Friends and Influence People.” So, let’s IMDB Dale Carnegie. Sure as heck, he played himself in 1947’s “Jiggs and Miggie in Society,” written by George McMbum, Barney Gerard, and Edward F. Cline. Trivia for McMbum shows he created the comic strip “Bringing Up Father.” Back to wikipedia for the strip’s page: “Bringing Up Father still enjoys popularity in the Scandinavian country Norway; known as Fiinbeck og Fia, the strip has been published weekly in the family journal Hjemmet since 1921.” Thus, after exhaustive research, the pbumphrase must be hjemmet.

D) The easiest way to do this one is copy the text and run it through a spellchecker. Mine caught everything but three of the letters hidden within the story (because the inserted letters make new real words). Alternatively, you could word wrap at 155 characters, and delete the first iteration of the story, and the clue reads straight down the page. “PbumphraseisthesecondmiddlenameoftheactorwhoplayedKubeonParkerLewisNocaps” So, the Pbumphrase is the second middle name of the actor who played Kube on Parker Lewis. Looking up “Kube Parker Lewis”, we get the wiki page for “Parker Lewis Can’t Lose,” where we see Kube (a.k.a. Francis Lawrence ‘Larry’ Kubiac III) was played by Abraham Rubin Hercules Benrubi. The pbumphrase is hercules.

E) The pbumphrase is cookie. This could easily be guessed. (The image was also named cookie.)

F) This leads to the end, and all the yummy questions which get you mbumive bonus points. Many of the questions were open to having multiple answers. Usually, if you answered with any manner of reason behind it, you’d get points. Here are the answers:
1) It’s Noob Saibot. Also acceptable was “the Original Sub-Zero” as the storyline revealed him as such. I even added an alt tag, and the jpg name to help those who don’t know Mortal Kombat.
2) Sub-Zero was killed by Scorpion (admittedly -after- Scorpion was killed by Sub-Zero, so it’s all fair). Scorpion’s real name, according to storyline, was Hanzo Hasashi.
3) This could be anything. The more amusing the better.
4) It’s the FW clbumes:
The first was the very special Policeman (Re-Re)
The second was iJustine, a blatant Camwhore
The third featured the Screeching Weasel, who’s 1999 album was named “Emo”
The fourth was hidden in a story which not only featured a troll, but also required you to find Abe Benrubi, who played Olaf the Troll on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”
The fifth is ripped directly from the movie Hackers. Here’s the script: http://www.angelfire.com/co/aplacetocrash/hackers.html Try searching the “I want a cookie” phrase within the script. You can also find the script by searching the cookie phrase in most search engines. This movie also ties to the side mission.
The final was Noob Saibot. Admittedly a very loose connection to the Noob of Permanoob, but by the time you got to the troll story, you either got the theme, or likely wouldn’t.
5) Pretty much any attack would get points.
6) “No” wouldn’t get any points. “Yes” might. The right answer is “Three of Clubs.”
7) If you found it, the answer is “Yes,” and you needed to prove it in number 8. If you didn’t, a simple “No” would get you points for honesty.
8) The side mission, which was found by using the pbumphrase “god”, which allowed the hackers to get into the backdoor of the Ellingson systems in the movie “Hackers.” The memo revealed the spills were to happen on the 14th. Posting the 14th in this answer space was proof you completed the side mission.
9) Swordfish. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023027/quotes10) It’s a 3-4-5 right triangle, so 210km.
11) 11. (That’s ridiculous. It’s not even funny.) http://www.mp3lyrics.org/n/negativland/time-zones/ Other accepted answers could be “Yes,” “No,” or “None,” since the Soviet Union no longer exists as such.

Several entrants did indeed reach the end.
Many thanks to Scully for the awesome side-contest, and for allowing me to help in the devilishness of it.